Businesses can soon apply for licenses to test their own 5G networks, as the National Communications Commission (NCC) is planning to publicize regulations governing privately managed 5G networks in the first quarter this year.
Compared with 4G, 5G networks have a lower latency, higher capacity and increased bandwidth, the commission said.
Aside from consumer-oriented applications, 5G technology offers companies opportunities to create new devices and facilitate their production processes, it added.
The commission has since 2019 allowed companies to test concepts with practical potential on the 4.8 Gigahertz (GHz) to 4.9GHz band.
Since last year, it has received 29 proof-of-concept applications, including from HTC, Panasonic Taiwan, Quanta Computers and Chunghwa Telecom.
Chunghwa Telecom and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have built an independent 5G network in the Start-up Terrace in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口).
Panasonic Taiwan and Quanta Cloud Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Computers, use their own 5G network to transmit high-definition images that enable assembly line workers at headlight manufacturing plants to install parts more accurately.
In contrast to consumer-oriented networks run by telecoms, companies’ internal 5G networks are not open to the public, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said yesterday.
“Previously, we gave private companies special permission to test a concept or theory using the frequency band, but in the future they can also obtain a license to access the band,” Wong said.
“The regulations governing the license applications are scheduled to be released in the first quarter of this year, followed by a 60-day public comment period,” he added.
Companies can begin filing applications once the regulations are finalized, he said.
Licenses for private 5G networks would be issued after a review by the NCC commissioners rather than through a public tender, Wong said, adding that band usage fees would be charged from licensed firms.
The commissioners would examine the application based on criteria including coverage, management and security of a private 5G network, as well as the projected bandwidth, Wong said.
Meanwhile, the commission is to subsidize telecoms NT$5.5 billion (US$197.64 million) this year for building 5G base stations.
In November last year, one-and-a-half years after 5G was launched in Taiwan, the nation had about 25,000 base stations, with a service coverage rate of 87 percent and 4.38 million users, or 18.76 percent of the population, NCC data showed.
This compares with 10.08 million 4G users 18 months after that service was launched in 2014, it said.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
RSS